We can’t say we weren’t warned. Many of us in The Village were outraged not once . . . not twice . . . but thrice. It began with Abu Ghraib. We learned that we were torturing prisoners. The shock to our “American” sense of decency and our understanding of the rule of law was gut wrenching. No amount of time can lessen the loathsome and depraved nature of that crime.
Torture.
The second outrage happened when we discovered that our elected leaders, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, were not only aware of the torture, they had approved and encouraged its use. And then they had the gall to call it not-torture. Enhanced interrogation became the surrogate for the real word, and folks all over our Village rallied to defend the practice. Thankfully, many of us didn’t fall for the stupid ruse and we continued to call it what it was:
Torture.
As the Bush and Cheney official criminal enterprise was finally . . . at long last . . . grinding to a halt, The Village managed to elect a new president. And not just any president, but a man who had taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School. He was also someone who, while campaigning, promised that if elected,
. . . if I found out that there were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in coverups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law — and I think that’s roughly how I would look at it.
We, The Village, hoped.
I mentioned we were outraged thrice?
Fury Number Three plopped upon our stoop when our new president refused to investigate the previous Administration’s probable high crimes and misdemeanors. In the previously quoted interview from April, 2008:
I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt because I think we’ve got too many problems we’ve got to solve.
I’m willing to give Barack Obama a little room with that statement. He was hopeful, after all, of working with congressional Republicans to fix things in our country. He couldn’t know in 2008 that after his election, the ultra-conservative, juvenile delinquent Republicans in Congress would behave as if a “witch hunt” had actually been initiated. But that misses the point altogether.
Torture.
With the exception of enslaving another person, torture is the worst depravity a human can commit; far worse than deceit or theft or murder or treason. (I make the exception for slavery because at its worst it will encompass every form of inhumanity imaginable, including torture.) Torture is a mind-numbing brutality that is rightly repudiated by law in every civilized country, including our own. Longstanding international treaties classify torture as a war crime punishable by death, which we handily meted out following World War II. It is considered immoral, disgusting, inhuman and evil. Tracking down those who authorize and perpetrate torture is not hunting witches; it is flushing a toilet.
President Obama erred pitifully when he decided to turn a blind eye and let W & Co. skip town. I am not advocating vengeance here. This is not revenge of any sort. Righting a damnably grievous wrong is part of living under the rule of law, and our peaceful fellowship within The Village requires it. It is also the stuff of human nature. Conversely, failing to demand accountability for criminal acts — and in this particular, monstrously criminal acts — creates an environment where the more fetid stuff of human nature will thrive and grow and spread.
And thus we find the Central Intelligence Agency now stands accused of spying on and stealing documents from Congress.
Why would the CIA do such a thing?
Torture.
When Bush and Cheney gave the order, the CIA created the machinery. Bush, Cheney and their minions were the soulless heart of America’s torture program, and the CIA was the rest of the body. CIA operatives kidnapped, imprisoned and tortured people around the world. CIA operatives have done their best to destroy evidence of their criminal deeds, and CIA officials have stonewalled congressional inquiry at every turn.
Quick Aside:
Congress is required by our laws to oversee and be responsible for the CIA’s policies and actions. Also, the CIA is prohibited by our laws from conducting any kind of intelligence operation within the United States. Senator Dianne Feinstein, the leader of the Senate intelligence committee, has been a longtime defender and supporter of our nation’s intelligence services. She is no bleeding heart when it comes to providing those agencies the funds and tools they need to operate.
But from today’s New York Times:
Ms. Feinstein delivered an extraordinary speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday in which she said the C.I.A. improperly searched the computers used by committee staff members who were investigating the interrogation program as recently as January.
Let’s make this clear. The Senate intelligence committee is investigating the CIA’s interrogation program. Yes, the “Enhanced Interrogation” program initiated under Bush and Cheney. Why would the committee investigate that program?
Torture.
And some people in the CIA are running scared because they know they committed heinous crimes within that program. There are operatives and officials within the CIA who are right now marshaling the agency’s immense intelligence resources in a (heretofore) clandestine battle with our Congress. Our elected officials have become targets of the most powerful spy agency on the planet.
In May, 1977, Richard Nixon infamously said to his interviewer, David Frost:
Oh, when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.
(That little turd of constitutional logic was uttered by the crook who assured us he wasn’t a crook.)
Where was I?
You can bet there are plenty of folks who will insist that if the President or Vice President ordered it, it was not against the law. So far that’s how things have played out. Nobody has been put on trial for torturing people. Yet. Time will tell whether the people of this country will be served up (i.e. on a platter) or served by their government. If the CIA is allowed to steamroller anyone and everyone in its way, all bets are off. We won’t be able to even pretend we are a nation governed by rule of law.
In the meantime, the toilet needs flushing.
